US open: Stocks mixed as nonfarm payrolls beat consensus

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Wall Street stocks were little changed early on Friday as traders returned from the Independence Day break to some hotly anticipated labour market data.

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.07% at 39,279.16, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.12% to 5,543.91 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.43% firmer at 18,266.87.

The Dow opened 28.84 points lower on Friday, extending losses recorded in its truncated Wednesday session.

Investors were primarily focused on last month's nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, with the Labor Department revealing nonfarm payrolls had risen by 206,000 in June, ahead of estimates for a reading of 190,000.

Significantly, readings on non-farm payrolls for the prior two months were revised down by a combined 111,000. The three-month moving average for total payrolls growth declined from 212,000 to 177,000 and from 178,000 to 146,000 within the private sector. In parallel, the unemployment rate ticked higher by a tenth of a percentage point to 4.1%.

Immediately following the release of the latest numbers the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell to 4.284%, but went on to reclaim some of its earlier losses and was later sitting roughly five basis points lower at 4.319%.

Still to come, the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy report will be published at 1600 BST.

Corporate earnings season will kick off next week, with the likes of Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo, as well as banking giants Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, all set to report before the end of the week.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $263.77 1.08%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $31.44 0.67%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $332.37 0.53%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $68.42 0.51%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $462.92 0.47%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $222.53 0.44%
Visa Inc. (V) $268.97 0.28%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $250.19 0.08%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $11.10 0.05%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $163.88 0.03%